No it's not. The Glen Campbell version is definitive and peerless.
Jonny Cash did some good covers, but to suggest that his and St Nick's version of I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry comes anywhere the desperate, haunted original is wrong, wrong, wrong. Hank sang it with a primal howl because he was a man in such despair that he truly, truly did mean it. Johnny and Nick, well, they've had their trials but, let's face it, neither of them were anywhere near that dark place Hank was,
The most you can ask from a cover is that it either does something different to the original, doesnt try to ape it, but pulls it out of shape and takes it somewhere interesting. Lost in Music by The Fall for example. Or you get a singer, like Cash, who can inhabit a song so expertly that you can believe it was written and meant for them to sing. Elvis, a man who never wrote a tune in his life, could do that brilliantly - see his his version of Only the Strong Survive for proof.
Spot on. The Fall's "Lost in Music" came to my mind as I started reading through this thread - as did JC's version of "I See A Darkness" and Buckley's "Hallelujah".
Other favourites of mine would include:
Camera Oscura "Super Trouper" (Abba)
The Fall - Legend of Xanadu (Dave, Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich)
Detriot Cobras - Bamalama (Otis Redding I think)
...I went away, had dinner, and thought of some more...
Cat Power - Crazy (Gnarls Barkley)
Pipettes - I Think We're Alone Now (Tiffany
Melt Banana - We Will Rock You (Queen)
One recent one is Gossip's cover of Wham's "Careless Whisper" - that's got to better than the original!!!